


Merlin's gift

by AngelUnderneath



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Oneshot, Pining, Romance, a lot of hugging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 22:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelUnderneath/pseuds/AngelUnderneath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur has to spend the holidays working away in Australia by orders of his father while Merlin stays at home in the UK for Christmas. Merlin misses his boyfriend dearly but surrounds himself with loving friends to keep his spirits up and a surprise Christmas gift from Morgana makes all the difference.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merlin's gift

**Author's Note:**

> Quickly wrote and not checked over properly because I'm a bad person and wanted to get this up today. Crappy little Christmas Merthur oneshot to help me through the anniversary depression.

“So have you spoken to Arthur yet today?” Gwen asked sipping at her hot chocolate as she swayed slowly to the Christmas songs playing on the TV. Merlin smiled up at his friend as he sat down next to Gwaine on the couch handing the other man a steaming mug.  
“Yeah I was on the phone to him this morning.” Merlin said keeping the smile plastered to his face though they all knew he wasn’t feeling it. Arthur was working over the holidays in Pendragon ltd Australian branch, Uther had allowed no room for argument when he sent his son away from his boyfriend for the holidays.   
“It’s alright Merls, I’ll keep you company.” Gwaine said putting his arm around Merlin’s neck and pulling him closer to place a friendly peck on his cheek.

Merlin rested his head on Gwaine’s shoulder and patted his chest, “Thanks Gwaine.” He then pulled himself away and jumped up from the couch again feeling the need to be move about. “So Gwen what time is Lance coming over? And did Morgana text you?” he asked moving over to the tree and reorganising the presents under it for the third time since he woke up that morning.  
“Lance promised to spend Christmas morning with his family but he said he’d come be here for dinner. I told them I’d visit later in the week because I needed to spend Christmas with you.” She said smiling over at Merlin. “Elyan should be here soon to spend Christmas with his sister like he also promised.” She said grinning to herself then, Merlin knew how excited she was to see her brother after he’d spent months travelling Europe then parts of Asia. “I haven’t heard from Morgana except for the group text this morning saying Merry Christmas but when I spoke to her on the phone last night she said she’d get here just before dinner depending on how soon she can be free of Uther.”   
Merlin nodded to himself and walked into the kitchen shouting back to them “Maybe we could all video chat with Arthur before he goes to work? I’d have to work out the times but I think it could work do you think he’d like that?” Merlin asked, he knew he was rambling a bit but he didn’t seem to be able to stop. It was his first Christmas making a big traditional Christmas dinner and he was far from alone as he’d invited all of his friends but with his mother passing away earlier in the year and his boyfriend unable to be there with him it was turning out to be the worst one yet. 

“That’s a lovely idea Merlin, of course Arthur would want to see you. It’s going to be hard for him too not being with you, he’s just better at hiding it.” Gwen said hugging him from behind and hooking her chin on his shoulder, “Now let’s take a deep breath, get the Christmas songs blasting and see how bad Gwaine really is in the kitchen, yeah?”  
“Yeah.” Merlin said turning round and pulling his best friend into a bear hug. “Thanks Gwen. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He said kissing the curls on the top of her head.   
“Now let’s get this party started.” Gwaine said walking into the kitchen sporting his new Christmas apron ¬¬¬, the bells attached to it jingled as he walked. He pointed at the gaudy lettering across his stomach that ordered the reader to ‘kiss the cook’ “I won’t tell if you won’t.” He said winking at Gwen, “I’m sure Lance won’t mind.” He said stepping towards her arm outstretched, Gwen smiled her beautiful smile and giggled walking around his arms to push him towards the fridge from behind. “But it’s Christmas.” Gwaine moaned but he opened the fridge door like he was told and took out the first wine bottle of the day to get them through the cooking.   
***

Much to Merlin’s surprise the three of them managed to pull off a decent Christmas dinner and once Leon and Percival turned up soon followed by Elyan it really did feel like Christmas, the food was good and the drink was flowing and Merlin was a lot happier than he had been when he woke up alone that morning. Gwen was on the couch watching funny videos of cats on YouTube with Percival while Percival was trying not to find them absolutely hysterical and failing miserably by the look of barely contained glee on his face. Lance, Gwaine and Elyan were playing some sort of card game on the floor in the middle of the room as Merlin watched them all from his place by the fire, he looked up as Leon walked in.   
“That was Morgana she’s on her way, said she’d be here soon.” He said waving his phone as if to prove his statement. “She actually apologised for being so late.” Leon said, Merlin thought that explained the shocked laugh that had come from him and couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“Merlin!” Gwen called from the couch, “Your laptop is telling me you have an email.” She held the laptop out to Lance with a smile who then passed it over to Merlin. “It’s from Arthur.”   
“But Arthur should still be sleeping right?” He asked looking round for confirmation that he hadn’t confused the time differences again. No-one argued with his logic so he opened up the email. “It says it’s a queued message so he must have sent it before he went to sleep.” Merlin said more to himself then for the sake of his friends. It was a video. He shushed them all and gestured at the TV which Elyan turned around to mute, “There’s a video attached.” When all was quiet he clicked play and enlarged the image so the picture was full screen. 

The first thing Merlin saw was Arthur, his blond hair and chiselled jaw, his bright blue eyes and that brilliant smile that never failed to take Merlin’s breath away, his heart ached a little in his chest. The image of Arthur waved at him through the screen. “Hello Merlin, Merry Christmas.” The smile stretched across Merlin’s face so quickly he thought he felt his jaw click. “And I’m presuming by the time you get this message everyone else is there with you.” Arthur said smiling, by now everyone had congregated behind Merlin’s chair or leaning against the armrest to better see the screen. “Merry Christmas everyone.” Arthur waved at the screen again and Merlin laughed as Gwaine waved back though he was fully aware Arthur couldn’t see him reciprocate. “I wish I could be there with you all and I can’t wait to get back.” Merlin heard Gwen sniffle behind him and held the hand that she placed on his shoulder as Lance pulled her into his side and kissed her head, she had been really emotional lately. Merlin would have to ask her about that later wondering if it had something to do with her refusing the wine when they’d cooked earlier. “I hope I can trust you all to take care of Merlin for me while I’m away. Someone give him a kiss from me.” Merlin blushed at that and he would have punched Arthur’s arm lightly if only he was in reaching distance. “Not you Gwaine.” Arthur said giving a stern look through the screen, everyone laughed at that even Gwaine after he put his hand to his chest and gasped as if shocked and offended, which only served to make them laugh more. “Merlin, I’m sorry I couldn’t be there when you woke up this morning. I know today can’t be easy for you but I’ll be home soon.” Everyone had returned to their previous seats pretending they couldn’t hear what was being said to give Merlin the illusion if privacy. “Just know that I love you so much. Ok.” Merlin nodded at the screen tears welling in his eyes, he missed him. “I’ll see you real soon Merlin. I love you.” That ¬was the last thing Arthur said before the video stopped playing, he put the laptop on the floor and stood. He didn’t know if he could keep the tears from running down his face much longer but he didn’t make it very far before Lance had him wrapped in his arms. It took all of five seconds before he felt Gwen’s small arms around his waist and then the others joined in until it was one big group hug in the middle of Merlin’s floor. He was suddenly hit with how much he truly loved his friends and then he was laughing and sniffling into Lance’s shoulder, “I love you guys. You soft gits.” He said looking around at them.  
“Hey now no need for the insult. You’ve been spending too much time with Arthur.” Leon said ruffling Merlin’s hair and pulling away just as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it must be Morgana.” He said walking out of the door as everyone pulled away gently shoving or patting Merlin in a companionable manner. 

Merlin heard the muffled greetings and the question in Leon’s voice, “Merlin!” Morgana shouted through the small house from the door. “Get your arse out here.” He rolled his eyes to Gwen and followed where Leon had gone to the door. He hugged Morgana tight as soon as he was within distance he hadn’t seen Arthur’s sister in the weeks leading up to Christmas as she’d always been busy and he’d be lying to say he hadn’t missed her on his movie nights they usually shared with Gwen. “I got you a present.” She said not even bothering to hide the grin on her face, she stepped to the side gesturing to the large red box tied up with gold ribbon. Morgana may seem like a headstrong bitch to anyone who didn’t know her but her friends knew her and they knew her generous heart that lead to the extravagant over the top gifts that they were presented with on birthdays and Christmas. “I assure you it is the best gift ever.” She said linking her arm around Leon’s and smiling at him.

“Oh Morgana. You didn’t have to.” He said moving towards the box in the middle of the path leading up to the house, “How did you even get it up here?” he asked reaching out and touching the elaborate bow on the top of the boxes lid.  
“Well I had some help.” Morgana said smirking, he looked back at Leon standing next to her and nodded. It had to be Leon that had helped the box was too big for even someone of Morgana’s strength to carry alone, it was up to Merlin’s hip and as long as his arm. “Wait!” Morgana shouted, “Don’t open it yet!” She turned to Leon and whispered into his ear he disappeared back inside the house but soon reappeared followed by the rest of their friends. “I want them to see your face.” She said as they moved to the side of Merlin and the mysterious box.

He saw Elyan whip out his video camera that he had brought to show them all the videos of his travels and point it towards Merlin. “Go on then Merls. I wanna know what it is.” He said nodding towards the box with a smile on his face.  
He reached for the lid, his heart was pounding in his chest and the blood rushing in his ears, he didn’t know why he was reacted this way but he put it down to the attention of his closest friends and a camera all directed at him. The lid came off easily enough but as it did the walls of the box came apart falling to the floor with a thud, he jumped back with a squeak that he hoped wasn’t picked up on the video. Merlin instantly brought up the lid to cover his face incase whatever it was exploded in his face, as lovely as Morgana was to her friends it was foolish to deny that she had a mischievous streak.

“Merlin?” Merlin’s heart skipped a beat and he felt like his chest had collapsed for all that he could manage a breath. It couldn’t be. Merlin lowered the lid, dropping it to the floor as he brought his hand to cover his mouth in surprise. “Merry Christmas Merlin.” Arthur said from where he knelt on the cardboard of the box in front of him. Merlin fell to his knees before Arthur and grabbed his face pulling him into a kiss. Arthur’s hand threaded through the hair at the back of Merlin’s head deepening the kiss with as much feeling as he could manage, they didn’t care that their friend’s were watching Arthur hadn’t been able to touch Merlin in weeks since he had left for Australia and he couldn’t have held back if he wanted to. Merlin pulled away from Arthur, after a whistle from Gwaine reminded them where they were, just as Arthur put his arm around Merlin’s back pulling him against his chest in a crushing embrace, Merlin’s arms wrapped around Arthur’s shoulders fitting his face against Arthur’s neck and just holding him. He didn’t want to let go. Arthur kissed Merlin’s neck before pushing him away gently, Merlin sat back on his ankles and looked at Arthur with a look of such a confused range of emotions that Arthur was momentarily speechless. That was until Morgana coughed to get their attention though neither of them seemed able to look away from the other Arthur nodded at the reminder. “Merlin, I love you so much.” Arthur said holding Merlin’s hand in his own, “These past few weeks have been some of the hardest of my life because I had to be away from you.” Merlin cursed himself for being so emotional, Arthur was so going to tease him about the tears that were streaming down his face when they were alone. He went to speak but Arthur kissed him lightly to shut him up, “Let me finish.” He said gently against Merlin’s lips. “And I might be apart from you again but when that happens I still want to know that we’re together somehow.” Arthur had practised this before but with every word that made it out of his mouth he was forgetting everything and just wanted to kiss Merlin again and hope he would understand from that.

“I’ll always be with you, Arthur.” Merlin whispered not trusting his voice to be strong enough if he tried to speak any louder, but feeling the need to say something if only to reassure Arthur that his feelings are mutual.   
“I know. I know.” Arthur leaned forward so his forehead was touching Merlin’s. “I know, I just-” he stuttered and that was it Arthur’s throat was tight with emotion he tried not to let show through, he had wanted to at least finish speaking. He sighed reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thin silver band, “Merlin Emrys, will you marry me?” he said his voice staying strong much to his own surprise.   
Merlin stared down at the ring of metal, the outside was plain and shining but the inside was engraved with what looked like an intricate picture of a dragon entwined in leaves. It was beautiful. He could hear Gwen squeak at the question but after that it had fallen silent as their friends looked on with baited breath waiting for Merlin’s answer, he realised he may have been silent for a bit too long just staring at the ring.

He looked back up into Arthur’s eyes, he looked anxious Merlin thought he must have been so confident when he had started as it was no secret that Merlin was absolutely besotted with his boyfriend. Merlin smiled and the worry in Arthur’s eyes washed away as if it was never there, “Of course I will. As if there was ever any doubt.” Merlin said pulling Arthur back in for another kiss this time a mess of lips, teeth and tongue, cheers and shouts erupted around them as their friends celebrated the engagement. But all Merlin cared about was the man underneath him because Merlin may have ended up pushing his new fiancé back into the frost covered grass next to the path and straddled him trying to get as much contact as he could despite the fact that they were outside surrounded by all of their friends. “Merry Christmas, Merlin.” Arthur said again when they pulled apart for breath.   
“Merry Christmas, Arthur.” Merlin replied his hand in Arthur’s hair and his forehead resting against the other man’s. He closed his eyes and stroked the golden locks between his fingers deciding that Morgana was right and this was indeed the best Christmas present he’d ever received.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, comments are appreciated I'd like to know what you thought.  
> Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and all that. Much Love xx


End file.
